Over 25 Years Later, Finally My 71 C-10 Truck Build

[hgs_notes]

I've only got about 19 days to get my truck ready for the power tour. I haven't been working on it because I've been busy with other things higher on the priority list. Girlfriends birthday was a couple weeks ago, I restored a bike for her...








She is gorgeous. People see her and ask me what she sees in me. I've got a paycheck and my own house. And I treat her well.

When we have been out and about she had mentioned a few times that she had this trike to beat around her old farm with. She no longer has the farm, but with the help of her daughter, I got the bike. I got her dad to do the paint. She has a white caddy she calls pearl. It's her second one and the nicest car she has ever had. So I had her dad spray it the same color. Her favorite color is pink, so I used that for the accents. I got the seat recovered by my daughters boyfriends mom who does upholstery. I went through a pack of steel wool cleaning up the chrome, replaced and rebuilt everything else. Even hammered the dents out of the chrome fenders. I had a custom plate made for it "pearl 3" and she says its the best birthday gift she ever got.

And just before that was my daughters prom. Her boyfriend asked to use my truck. I made him polish the wheels...




And I've been working too many hours on too many days.

Another reason for a lack of garage time was my daughters graduation...


Anyway, enough *****ing, I ordered the last part I need to swap radiators. A new fan control. I went with the Ron Francis AR99. There are cheaper ones, but the reviews weren't great and I don't need the hassle somewhere along the road.

I've been driving the truck regularly, which reminds me, I had a little mechanical issue a few weeks back. Story time...

I bought the crewcab, still have some issues to fix on it, but a friend of mine up north has some parts I can use. And I have parts to get rid of, so we made a trade. I had a weekend off (finally) so loaded the truck and hit the road. He lives about 170 miles north. I stopped for lunch about 2/3 of the way up, no issues. Then I got on the freeway and I passed a car, which immediately slowed down and fell back. I'm thinking that's pretty odd, but noticed some grey smoke when I looked out the rearview mirror. Nothing odd on my gauges but I took the next exit to check things out. Tranny fluid was pouring out of it and burning on the exhaust. There was a trail of it following me and it was pooling under it fast.

My uncle lives about 6 miles from where I'm at so I wanna try to go there. No dice. It dumped too much fluid and wasn't going anywhere. I was lucky to get off the freeway.

I couldn't get under enough to see where the leak was. So I stuck my phone under and took a couple pics...




Well that aint right!

Never one to panic, I made a couple phone calls. One to Mike, who I was heading to see. He had his car trailer already hooked up to his truck and hit the road for the rescue. And to a local parts store on the off chance they had a new governor cover. No dice, but the kid was smart. He knew I was broke down on the road, asked where I was and said he knows a guy. He would call him and one of them would get back to me. A few minutes later another guy calls me and asks the pertinent questions. Whats broke, where am I. I've never had that cover off so I really didn't know what all was supposed to be under it, so I sent him the pics from my phone. He said he had the parts, just needed to get it to his shop, a few miles south of me.

A short time later, Mike pulls up, we load the truck, a few minutes later we are rolling it off the trailer into Tim's Repair shop. Up on the lift it goes, Tim has the part ready with a new O-ring and wire clip retainer and and in about 1 minute the repair is done. I had him keep it up on the lift a few minutes so I could check a few things and tighten up some exhaust clamps and wipe some of the tranny fluid off. Dropped it down, refilled the fluid and he charged me $30.


We could have hit the road back to Mikes place right away, but we ended up sticking around for a couple hours BSing and looking around Tim's shop. If you're broke down around the Sauk Centre, MN area and need some help, give him a call, 320-352-3602 (shop), 320-492-7220 (cell) or timsrepair.net

I'm hoping I get enough time this next weekend to finally swap the radiator and maybe fix a couple other things I have had parts sitting around here for. That gives me a week or more to put some miles on it before power tour.

[mcbassin]

Excellent job on the bike restoration! you have skills....
congrats on the daughters graduation! My little one graduated last night. Pretty crazy how fast they grow up.
Bummer about the tranny leak.

[Low Elco]

Good story, as always. Diggin' the bike.

[Dieselwrencher]

Mike, great job on the bike, I laughed pretty good on the comment of having a check, and house! Congrats on her graduating! Is she the last now? That sucks to hear of the trans issue but it worked out really well all in all. Good luck and have fun on Power Tour. I'm not going to make it again. We just got a new to us house and I'm getting ready to put a fence up and a half a million other things.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Excellent job on the bike restoration! you have skills....
congrats on the daughters graduation! My little one graduated last night. Pretty crazy how fast they grow up.
Bummer about the tranny leak.

Thanks. The past few years have flown by and its almost a blur. The brain keeps up as its happening, but the recollection of it all gets fuzzy. Glad I took pics! The tranny leak was no big deal cuz I gots Skillz. And I know people. No permanent damage done.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Good story, as always. Diggin' the bike.

Thanks. She LOVES her bike. I got some pink dice valve stem caps for it.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Mike, great job on the bike, I laughed pretty good on the comment of having a check, and house! Congrats on her graduating! Is she the last now? That sucks to hear of the trans issue but it worked out really well all in all. Good luck and have fun on Power Tour. I'm not going to make it again. We just got a new to us house and I'm getting ready to put a fence up and a half a million other things.

She is the last one. All three survived to 18 years old, graduated high school and have jobs. That's right, I'm super dad!

Congrats on the house. Connie and me are still looking. Nothing for sale here out of town right now. Gonna get me a shop. A real shop. I love my garage, but there's no room. It's like a tick that's ready to pop. We're looking for a small acreage. A farm site with a couple good buildings on it.

Got the fan controller yesterday. Should be able to get it in this weekend.

Another note on the tranny thing. I was wondering how I lost the cover in the first place. There is supposed to be a wire retainer clip thingy for it. Looking through the old pics, mine was missing. Maybe it never had it. I've never taken it off as far as I can remember. Never had a need to. They are kinda pressed in tight, but mine obviously worked its way out. Pic from about 5 years ago...

[mcbassin]

Another note on the tranny thing. I was wondering how I lost the cover in the first place. There is supposed to be a wire retainer clip thingy for it. Looking through the old pics, mine was missing. Maybe it never had it. I've never taken it off as far as I can remember. Never had a need to. They are kinda pressed in tight, but mine obviously worked its way out. Pic from about 5 years ago...

That's what I was thinking when you posted the leaking pics, I couldn't imagine that cover coming off with the retainer clip on it. I bet when you gave it gas it built too much pressure and just popped out.
Get her fixed up....

[Dieselwrencher]

Good luck finding an acerage. That's what we wanted and still do. It'll have to wait though.....

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Good luck finding an acerage. That's what we wanted and still do. It'll have to wait though.....

I'm working on a deal I think will work out. I'll post something if it does. It'll mean I get a new shop!

And I have been getting things done on the truck. Time to post the evidence.

Last weekend I did get the radiator mounted. The new one is just a bit thinner than the 4 core I took out. It's about 1/4" thinner in the rubber mounts.




It also is about 1/4" taller in the mounts. I don't think the radiator itself is any taller. Its just how it's built where it sits in the mounts. To get it down a bit I cut an edge off the rubbers...


If you don't have a fan shroud like me (and you don't) I doubt there would be any issues using the OEM mounts and clamping it down. With just a little trimming I could get my shroud over it ok.



Shroud on...




The next job was the new fan controller. I didn't mount it in the vehicle like the instructions say and I hope that doesn't bite me in the ass later but it also said not to mount it near any of the computers or other electronics. So that didn't leave me many options. I will try to make a cover for it but I'm not too worried about it getting wet where I mounted it.


I needed to change how the bottom of the fan shroud was held in place and came up with a simple solution. Just a ell bracket that mounts to the bottom of the radiator support. A few screws and it should be good.


Mounted. Needs a touch of paint and a couple more screws into the shroud itself.


Need to clean up the wiring a bit and make a cover, but it's in and works as designed. I let it run for about an hour. Mostly just sitting in the driveway and just a couple blocks of driving around. It never went past mid way on the temp gauge. The fans will run for a couple minutes after you shut off the engine and thats long enough to cool the radiator down. It really seems to transfer the heat fast. Of course the real test is on the road and thats coming Saturday.

Something else on my hit list was replacing a couple U bolts on the lower control arms. When I rebuilt the front suspension last year I cross threaded one and had to buy a replacement. The new ones were a lot beefier than the OEM parts and only cost about $6 I think. So I bought another pair for the other side...


Tonight I got started on replacing the blinker switch in the steering column. Total PITA but it needed to be done. The new part is installed but I need to finish the electrical part. I have a few helpful tips I figured out doing it and will share those on my next post. Whats left is to finish the blinker switch, maybe see if I can make the horn work like it's supposed to, if I have time I'd like to swap the tach with the new one I have, change the oil, pack and go.

On a side note, I bought another crew cab. A 4x4 this time. I'll post something up on that soon too. But it's late and I have to work tomorrow so have a good night everyone.

[mcbassin]

Looks like a good fit on the radiator. You should be about ready to power tour not huh....

[Palf70Step]

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work on the radiator, and cool to hear you got a 4x4 crew cab now too!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Looks like a good fit on the radiator. You should be about ready to power tour not huh....

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Yeah, I think its as close as you will find in a non-stock part fitting in there. Just about ready.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice work on the radiator, and cool to hear you got a 4x4 crew cab now too!

This is what I'm buying.








I've seen this truck before at my sisters place. It belongs to a friend of hers. I had no idea the guy was interested in selling it. If I had I would have got this one instead of the brown one.

It's a 1982 C-30, that has a 78 front end (all new parts). It was originally a dually 2wd, but he converted it to 4wd with parts from an 82 K-20. It has a 454 and 4 spd manual tranny, NP205 transfercase, Dana 44 front and 60 rear. I'm not getting the truck as seen in the picks. It has a 6" suspension lift and 3" body lift. The wheels are 16.5" with 38" bias ply mudders on them. He wants the wheels and since they are the 16.5" I'm fine with that. The bed has rust in the cross sills but he is swapping another bed onto it that is mostly rust free and has a good tailgate. He will remove the body lift (I don't need it). The steering was scary loose and he will be replacing some of the worn parts and changing the oil for me. It also comes with 2 good GM front doors. It will need rear doors, rockers, cab corners and a couple floor patches. Also will need the clutch replaced but it didn't slip much when I drove it.

The brown one will be for sale as soon as I get back from power tour.

Today I finished the steering column up. I got the wires run, except for the power to the shift indicator. I even got the horn working! I was noticing that the idle didn't always get down to where it should and I lost the spring for the throttle return. So I made a bracket and got a new spring in there. I got the other 2 screws in the shroud bracket.

Here's a tip for doing the blinker switch. The wire harness with the plug will not fit through the column assembled. You need to pull the terminals out of the plug. It took me a few minutes to figure it out but there are a couple little tangs, one on each side that you need to bend in. I used a dental pick to do it. The terminal slides right out once they are bent in.


The wire for the shift indicator needs the plug removed also. It has one tang on the back side.


My mess yesterday. I figured if I didn't get it back together I would just use a visegrips to steer and use hand signals.


I also remembered that I bought a new shift indicator piece a few years ago and wanted to get it in since I had it all apart anyway.


But my shifter is not lining up as it should. It's too far to the left. Need to figure out how to fix that eventually.

It's all back together and working good though. Still need to do the oil change and I was thinking during my drive back from the girlfriends place that I should check the rear diff oil too. A wash and wax and rain X on the glass and it's good to go. Still might do the tach replacement if I have time.

And for those that may have forgot or didn't know, I'm getting this car tomorrow. FINALLY! After about 2 years or more of knowing about it and over a year of talking to the owner. It's a 46 or 47 Olds Series 78 Dynamic Cruiser Club Sedan. He's hauling it to my place tomorrow morning and taking my 79 Mazda RX-7. I get some cash in the deal also.




After I finish up the Jimmy (which has been on hold cuz of everything else I've been doing) the olds is next on the project list. As of now, my plan is to get a denali XL or escalade with the AWD and single speed transfer case and use it as a donor for the complete chassis and drop the olds body on it. Will it work? I'll find out eventually.

Thanks for reading. Good night.

[Blown06]

I've spent the last day reading through your thread, the title and story behind the truck is similar to mine so I was hooked at post one. What an awesome read, the truck turned out great. I learned a bunch from your trials and triumphs and will surely reference your thread again when I get in a pinch. Thanks again for taking the time to update the thread through the years, these truck projects can be overwhelming at times when we do them as hobbies between a daily job, family time and life in general. Seeing how you stuck with it over the years to the finish helps those of us just getting started on a complete tear down.

Great looking truck and I'm glad you're getting to enjoy it now.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Blown06

I've spent the last day reading through your thread, the title and story behind the truck is similar to mine so I was hooked at post one. What an awesome read, the truck turned out great. I learned a bunch from your trials and triumphs and will surely reference your thread again when I get in a pinch. Thanks again for taking the time to update the thread through the years, these truck projects can be overwhelming at times when we do them as hobbies between a daily job, family time and life in general. Seeing how you stuck with it over the years to the finish helps those of us just getting started on a complete tear down.

Great looking truck and I'm glad you're getting to enjoy it now.

Thanks a lot. Glad you enjoyed it. Persistence is the key to getting these things done. Once you stop its hard to get going again.

Tonight I got the new tach installed. The only thing left on the dash/column work is to look at a wiring diagram so I can plug in the shift indicator light. Everything seems to be working good. Glad I checked the rear diff oil though. It was a pint low. It's about ready to go. Now I just gotta get myself and the boy ready.

The olds didn't make it here today. Mechanical issues with the tow rig. Should be here in the morning. Here are a few more pics of it from when I looked at it way back when.

[hgs_notes]

Olds

[hgs_notes]

Another

[Palf70Step]

I like that Olds! Very nice aquisition.

[mcbassin]

That's very cool old Oldsmobile! Nice score on the crew cab too.

[Dieselwrencher]

That olds will be so cool! It doesn't look horribly roted out either. Nice score on the 4x4 crew cab too!

[Low Elco]

Hope your land deal works out. You need it for your car lot.
Posted via Mobile Device

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

I like that Olds! Very nice aquisition.

It's pretty cool isn't it? My oldest girl loves it. She has made a claim on it already. She's always been the one that likes the "roundy" cars as she calls them.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

That's very cool old Oldsmobile! Nice score on the crew cab too.

Thanks, it's a hard body style to find. Looks sooo much better than the 4 doors or the coupes. Swoopy. The crew cab will make a damn good farm truck. I can put a plow on it.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That olds will be so cool! It doesn't look horribly roted out either. Nice score on the 4x4 crew cab too!

The top 95% of it is pretty good. The lower 5% not so much.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Hope your land deal works out. You need it for your car lot.

To be fair, I did get rid of a car today also and will sell the brown truck after I get back. I hope the land deal works out too. If it does I'll post some pics of it. There are 3 garages. The 3 stall one would be my temporary shop until I turn a large machine shed into my dream shop. It's about 40'x 80' or more.

Not much done to the truck today. PLugged the wire in for the shift indicator, worked on sealing up windshield leaks and door gasket leaks. The weather forecast pretty much shows rain every day at each venue. Might as well minimize the amount of moisture that is getting inside. I drove it to a small local cruise night and everything seems to be great.

I'll try and post stuff during the trip. I have a better phone now for doing things like that. I really need this break from work.

[hgs_notes]

Posted via Mobile Device

[hgs_notes]

Hitting the road.

Our Lady of blessed Acceleration don't fail me now.

[1956cameo]

Good to see you got the truck back on the road after working out a few small projects. That Old's is F'ing Awesome!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 1956cameo

Good to see you got the truck back on the road after working out a few small projects. That Old's is F'ing Awesome!

Thanks man. So far the only problem has been a slightly leaky windshield. Engine cooling issue is history. The truck is running great. Rapping out at 3000 rpm doing 70 down the interstate or idling along in traffic. It won't win many races but gets me where I'm going.

The most common compliment we get is on the interior. And they love the color. The ones that don't love it keep it to themselves.